Auditory Perception

Event-related potentials (ERPs) from 50 children (6-11 years) and 10 adults were elicited by auditory passive, and by rare target and frequent non-target stimuli, and analyzed in the time and frequency domains. The latency of the maximal theta response (or the theta frequency component of the ERP) was evaluated with respect to age and scalp topography effects. The major findings were: (1) The latency of the maximal theta response decreased with increasing age in children, although for each stimulus type and location adults had shorter latencies than the children. (2) The developmental time course of latency reduction depended on the electrode location, with the most prominent reduction occurring at 8 years at Cz, and no differences between children groups obtained for the frontal site. (3) Maximal theta response latency was strongly associated with the latency of the late parietal P400-700 (P3b) component in children. The results suggest that the developmental latency decrease in P300 processes originate from a decrease in the preceding theta-related processes and may reflect a speeding of cognitive stimulus evaluation.

The present study assessed the effect of age on time and frequency components of auditory evoked potentials in two groups of adults, young (18-30 years old) and middle-aged (50-55 years old). Averaged and single-sweep potentials were analyzed. Analysis of single alpha and theta responses was performed for 3 parameters -single-sweep amplitude, phase-locking, and enhancement. Significant age differences were revealed only at the level of single sweeps: (i) at the 3 mid-line locations (Fz, Cz, and Pz), middle-aged adults manifested theta phase-locking and enhancement which were significantly stronger than those in young adults; and (ii) in contrast, only over the frontal brain area were the alpha responses stronger in phase-locking and enhancement in the middle-aged than in young subjects. Thus, the analysis of frequency responses at the level of single sweeps enabled us to reveal age differences in simple auditory stimulus processing that were otherwise not detectable in the averaged potential. The results imply that the alpha response system may relate to frontal brain functioning during aging.

Background: Two-channel auditory steady-state response (ASSR) recording at high and low MF (modulation frequency) most likely provides an insight about the response amplitude and latency from different directions at the brainstem level and at the thalamus or cortical level. Little is known about the combined relationship between MF (39 and 79 Hz) and electrode montages (ipsilateral and contralateral) to single AM (amplitude modulation) tones on the ASSR amplitude and latency. Purpose: To determine if ipsilateral versus contralateral response asymmetries are present at the brainstem level (79 Hz ASSR) and at the thalamus or cortical levels (39 Hz ASSR). Research Design: Descriptive and inferential statistics for interchannel ipsilateral and contralateral ASSR amplitude and latency to 79 and 39 Hz. Study Sample: Twenty-five normal-hearing, right-handed young female adults participated in the study. All participants were right-handed, and their age ranged between 18 to 28 years (mean 24.5 6 1.6 years). Data Collection and Analysis: Ipsilateral and contralateral ASSR to 39 and 79 Hz MF and 100% AM stimuli were recorded at 500, 2000, and 4000 Hz carrier frequencies at 65 dB SPL. The ASSR amplitudes and phases were determined for each MF across Fc (carrier frequency) for the two channels to the test (right) ear. ASSR amplitude and latency between recording montages for each MF and across carrier frequency were compared by computing two-way repeated measures ANOVA. The mean ipsilateral ASSR amplitudes to 39 Hz across frequency were slightly larger (228.6 6 61.6 mV) than the contralateral response amplitude (223.2 6 78 mV) while the mean ipsilateral 79 Hz amplitudes were smaller (127.3 6 114.8) compared to contralateral 79 Hz amplitude (154.6 6 112.7 mV). For latency response, the mean ipsilateral/contralateral latency difference, on average, was 1 msec or less for both MFs. Results, in normal female adults, indicated no significant interchannel ASSR asymmetries for amplitude and latency (p . 0.05) at the brainstem (79 Hz ASSR) and at the thalamus or cortical levels (39 Hz ASSR). Conclusions: Interchannel ipsilateral and contralateral ASSR amplitude and latency to 79 and 39 Hz are not significantly different in normal, young female adults. Two-channel recording of ASSR to different MFs may be of clinical value in otoneurologic assessment.

The aim of this exploratory study was to describe audiologist communication behaviours during appointments for hearing device monitoring and management before and after participation in counselling skills training. The study used a longitudinal design with three assessment points over 6 months. The sample included 10 audiologists and audiology graduate students interacting in a professional setting with their clients. Audiologists reported improvement in their counselling skills from pre-training to follow-up, which was consistent with objective findings that audiologist relative speaking time decreased from pre-training to post-training as well as from pre-training to follow-up. Observer-rated scores of participants' counselling skills; however, yielded no significant differences across time. Some improvement was noted in audiologists' counselling behaviour following a 1-day communication skills workshop and continued learning support. It is evident; however, that further t...

Auditory-perceptual judgements are regarded as the standard method for assessing speech disorders. However, the results of auditory-perceptual evaluations and rater reliability can be affected by various factors, such as concurrent problems in multiple speech subsystems. This study investigated the effect of a co-occurring articulation disorder on auditory-perceptual judgements of hypernasality and the effect of co-occurring hypernasality on judgements of an articulation disorder. The speech stimuli were sentences produced by a male speaker who simulated four levels of hypernasality (typical nasality, and mild, moderate, and severe hypernasality) at four levels of disordered articulation (typical articulation, and mild, moderate, and severe articulation disorder). Thirty speech and language therapy students used visual analogue scales to rate the severity of hypernasality and articulation disorder for each speech sample. Results showed that the hypernasality ratings were significantly higher when articulation disorder co-occurred compared to those without. However, there was no significant difference between mild, moderate and severe concurrent articulation disorder on hypernasality ratings. The speech samples with typical articulation and those with severe articulation disorder were rated as more severe in terms of articulation problem when combined with severe hypernasality. However, there was no significant hypernasality effect on articulation ratings for speech with mild or moderate articulation disorder. The present results generally agreed with previous findings regarding the effect of co-occurring speech problems on auditory-perceptual judgements. Clinicians are advised to be cautious of the potential impact. If possible, speech evaluation using instrumental techniques should be used to supplement auditory-perceptual judgements.

Auditory-perceptual judgements are regarded as the standard method for assessing speech disorders. However, the results of auditory-perceptual evaluations and rater reliability can be affected by various factors, such as concurrent problems in multiple speech subsystems. This study investigated the effect of a co-occurring articulation disorder on auditory-perceptual judgements of hypernasality and the effect of co-occurring hypernasality on judgements of an articulation disorder. The speech stimuli were sentences produced by a male speaker who simulated four levels of hypernasality (typical nasality, and mild, moderate, and severe hypernasality) at four levels of disordered articulation (typical articulation, and mild, moderate, and severe articulation disorder). Thirty speech and language therapy students used visual analogue scales to rate the severity of hypernasality and articulation disorder for each speech sample. Results showed that the hypernasality ratings were significantly higher when articulation disorder co-occurred compared to those without. However, there was no significant difference between mild, moderate and severe concurrent articulation disorder on hypernasality ratings. The speech samples with typical articulation and those with severe articulation disorder were rated as more severe in terms of articulation problem when combined with severe hypernasality. However, there was no significant hypernasality effect on articulation ratings for speech with mild or moderate articulation disorder. The present results generally agreed with previous findings regarding the effect of co-occurring speech problems on auditory-perceptual judgements. Clinicians are advised to be cautious of the potential impact. If possible, speech evaluation using instrumental techniques should be used to supplement auditory-perceptual judgements.

Just because a book, article, or presentation includes pictures of a brain or uses a whole bunch of big brain words, does not mean the information presented is always accurate or scientific.  We must be responsible consumers of all information, and this includes brain imaging research for reading instruction.

Representations encoding the probabilities of auditory events do not directly support predictive processing. In contrast, information about the probability with which a given sound follows another (transitional probability) allows predictions of upcoming sounds. We tested whether behavioral and cortical auditory deviance detection (the latter indexed by the mismatch negativity event-related potential) relies on probabilities of sound patterns or on transitional probabilities. We presented healthy adult volunteers with three types of rare tone-triplets among frequent standard triplets of high-low-high

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Auditory perceptual inference engages learning of complex statistical information about the environment. Inferences assist us to simplify perception highlighting what can be predicted on the basis of prior learning (through the formation of internal "prediction" models) and what might be new, potentially necessitating an investment of resources to remodel predictions. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that sound sequences with multiple levels of predictability may rely on cognitive resources and be cognitively penetrable to a greater extent than was previously shown by studies presenting simpler sound sequences. Auditory-evoked potentials (AEPs) were recorded from 117 participants. All participants heard the exact same sound sequence but under different conditions: 51 while watching a DVD movie and 66 while performing a cognitively demanding task. Participants were asked to ignore the sounds and focus their attention on the movie/task. However, prior to commencing the experiment we manipulated what participants knew about the sound sequence by providing explicit sequence information to 15 and 34 of the participants in the DVD and cognitive-task conditions, respectively, and no information to the others. The results demonstrated that although local pattern violations elicited distinctive AEP responses (namely, mismatch negativity), the way the amplitude of this response was modulated by sequence learning over time was dependent upon both task and explicit sequence knowledge. The implications are discussed with reference to how the division of available attention resources between the primary task and concurrent sound impacts what is learned.

In perceptual multi-stability, perception stochastically switches between alternative interpretations of the stimulus allowing examination of perceptual experience independent of stimulus parameters. Previous studies found that listeners show temporally stable idiosyncratic switching patterns when listening to a multi-stable auditory stimulus, such as in the auditory streaming paradigm. This inter-individual variability can be described along two dimensions, Exploration and Segregation. In the current study, we explored the functional brain networks associated with these dimensions and their constituents using electroencephalography. Results showed that Segregation and its constituents are related to brain networks operating in the theta EEG band, whereas Exploration and its constituents are related to networks in the lower and upper alpha and beta bands. Thus, the dimensions on which individuals' perception differ from each other in the auditory streaming paradigm probably refl...

We wished to determine whether multiple sound patterns can be simultaneously represented in the temporary auditory bu¡er (auditory sensory memory), when subjects have no task related to the sounds. To this end we used the mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related potential, an electric brain response elicited when a frequent sound is infrequently replaced by a di¡erent sound.The MMN response is based on the presence of the auditory sensory memory trace of the frequent sounds, which exists whether or not these sounds are in the focus of the subject's atten-tion. Subjects watching a movie were presented with sound sequences consisting of two frequent sound patterns, each formed of four di¡erent tones and an infrequent pattern consisting of the ¢rst two tones of one of the frequent sound pattern and the last two tones of the other frequent sound pattern. The infrequent sound pattern elicited an MMN, indicating that multiple sound patterns are formed at an early, largely automatic stage of auditory processing. NeuroReport13:1747^1751

Drug name confusion is a common type of medication error and a persistent threat to patient safety. In the USA, roughly one per thousand prescriptions results in the wrong drug being filled, and most of these errors involve drug names that look or sound alike. Prior to approval, drug names undergo a variety of tests to assess their potential for confusability, but none of these preapproval tests has been shown to predict real-world error rates. We conducted a study to assess the association between error rates in laboratory-based tests of drug name memory and perception and real-world drug name confusion error rates. Eighty participants, comprising doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians and lay people, completed a battery of laboratory tests assessing visual perception, auditory perception and short-term memory of look-alike and sound-alike drug name pairs (eg, hydroxyzine/hydralazine). Laboratory test error rates (and other metrics) significantly predicted real-world error rates...

The current study examined the impact of language experience on the ability to efficiently search for objects in the face of distractions. Monolingual and bilingual participants completed an ecologically-valid, object-finding task that contained conflicting, consistent, or neutral auditory cues. Bilinguals were faster than monolinguals at locating the target item, and eye movements revealed that this speed advantage was driven by bilinguals' ability to overcome interference from visual distractors and focus their attention on the relevant object. Bilinguals fixated the target object more often than did their monolingual peers, who, in contrast, attended more to a distracting image. Moreover, bilinguals', but not monolinguals', object-finding ability was positively associated with their executive control ability. We conclude that bilinguals' executive control advantages extend to real-world visual processing and object finding within a multi-modal environment.

Musical experience may benefit learning of a new language by increasing the fidelity with which the auditory system encodes sound. In the current study, participants with varying degrees of musical experience were exposed to two statistically defined languages consisting of auditory Morse code sequences that varied in difficulty. We found an advantage for highly skilled musicians, relative to lower-skilled musicians, in learning novel Morse code-based words. Furthermore, in the more difficult learning condition, performance of lower-skilled musicians was mediated by their general cognitive abilities. We suggest that musical experience may improve processing of statistical information and that musicians’ enhanced ability to learn statistical probabilities in a novel Morse code language may extend to natural language learning.

Background: One possible strategy to evaluate whether signals in different modalities originate from a common external event or object is to form associations between inputs from different senses. This strategy would be quite effective because signals in different modalities from a common external event would then be aligned spatially and temporally. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that after adaptation to visual apparent motion paired with alternating auditory tones, the tones begin to trigger illusory motion perception to a static visual stimulus, where the perceived direction of visual lateral motion depends on the order in which the tones are replayed. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain unclear. One important approach to understanding the mechanisms is to examine whether the effect has some selectivity in auditory processing. However, it has not yet been determined whether this aftereffect can be transferred across sound frequencies and between ears. Methodology/Principal Findings: Two circles placed side by side were presented in alternation, producing apparent motion perception, and each onset was accompanied by a tone burst of a specific and unique frequency. After exposure to this visual apparent motion with tones for a few minutes, the tones became drivers for illusory motion perception. However, the aftereffect was observed only when the adapter and test tones were presented at the same frequency and to the same ear. Conclusions/Significance: These findings suggest that the auditory processing underlying the establishment of novel audiovisual associations is selective, potentially but not necessarily indicating that this processing occurs at an early stage.

Auditory temporal or semantic information often modulates visual motion events. However, the effects of auditory spatial information on visual motion perception were reported to be absent or of smaller size at perceptual level. This could be caused by a superiority of vision over hearing in reliability of motion information. Here, we manipulated the retinal eccentricity of visual motion and challenged the previous findings. Visual apparent motion stimuli were presented in conjunction with a sound delivered alternately from two horizontally or vertically aligned loudspeakers; the direction of visual apparent motion was always perpendicular to the direction in which the sound alternated. We found that the perceived direction of visual motion could be consistent with the direction in which the sound alternated or lay between this direction and that of actual visual motion. The deviation of the perceived direction of motion from the actual direction was more likely to occur at larger retinal eccentricities. These findings suggest that the auditory and visual modalities can mutually influence one another in motion processing so that the brain obtains the best estimates of external events.

Background: After a prolonged exposure to a paired presentation of different types of signals (e.g., color and motion), one of the signals (color) becomes a driver for the other signal (motion). This phenomenon, which is known as contingent motion aftereffect, indicates that the brain can establish new neural representations even in the adult's brain. However, contingent motion aftereffect has been reported only in visual or auditory domain. Here, we demonstrate that a visual motion aftereffect can be contingent on a specific sound. Results: Dynamic random dots moving in an alternating right or left direction were presented to the participants. Each direction of motion was accompanied by an auditory tone of a unique and specific frequency. After a 3-minutes exposure, the tones began to exert marked influence on the visual motion perception, and the percentage of dots required to trigger motion perception systematically changed depending on the tones. Furthermore, this effect lasted for at least 2 days. Conclusions: These results indicate that a new neural representation can be rapidly established between auditory and visual modalities.

In representational momentum (RM), the final position of a moving target is mislocalized in the direction of motion. Here, the effect of a concurrent sound on visual RM was demonstrated. A visual stimulus moved horizontally and disappeared at unpredictable positions. A complex tone without any motion cues was presented continuously from the beginning of the visual motion. As compared with a silent condition, the RM magnitude increased when the sound lasted longer than and decreased when it did not last as long as the visual motion. However, the RM was unchanged when a brief complex tone was presented before or after the target disappeared (Experiment 2) or when the onset of the long-lasting sound was not synchronized with that of the visual motion (Experiments 3 and 4). These findings suggest that visual motion representation can be modulated by a sound if the visual motion information is firmly associated with the auditory information.

The predictive coding framework, applied to musical listening by Vuust et al. [2022] and Koelsch-Vuust-Friston [2019], has revolutionized the computational understanding of musical processing. However, a fundamental question remains inadequately theorized: why do musical prediction errors, which in other perceptual contexts signal problematic violations to be minimized, become in musical listening sources of aesthetic pleasure? This article proposes a unifying thesis: the neurobiological specificity of the human brain allows prediction errors to be transformed into aesthetic experiences when these occur in safe and structured contextscontexts in which uncertainty is generated, accumulated, and resolved according to learned meta-predictive patterns that the system recognizes as reliable. Music is the paradigmatic case of this configuration: a cultural structure that organizes prediction errors for pleasure, exploiting the brain's predictive machinery in a mode we might call "rewarding prediction error". It is argued that this formulation integrates apparently disparate data: the dopaminergic bifasic dynamics documented by Salimpoor et al. [2011]; the uncertainty-surprise balance for pleasure documented by Cheung et al. [2019]; the modulation of amygdala and nucleus accumbens; the effect of familiarity on musical pleasure; the rarity of analogous aesthetic experiences from non-musical perceptual stimuli. Testable predictions are presented along with implications for the design of music therapy interventions based on manipulated precision of the predictive structure.

Vocal communication is an important aspect of guinea pig behaviour and a large contributor to their acoustic environment. We postulated that some cortical areas have distinctive roles in processing conspecific calls. In order to test this hypothesis we presented exemplars from all ten of their main adult vocalizations to urethane anesthetised animals while recording from each of the eight areas of the auditory cortex. We demonstrate that the primary area (AI) and three adjacent auditory belt areas contain many units that give isomorphic responses to vocalizations. These are the ventrorostral belt (VRB), the transitional belt area (T) that is ventral to AI and the small area (area S) that is rostral to AI. Area VRB has a denser representation of cells that are better at discriminating among calls by using either a rate code or a temporal code than any other area. Furthermore, 10% of VRB cells responded to communication calls but did not respond to stimuli such as clicks, broadband no...

Vocal communication is an important aspect of guinea pig behaviour and a large contributor to their acoustic environment. We postulated that some cortical areas have distinctive roles in processing conspecific calls. In order to test this hypothesis we presented exemplars from all ten of their main adult vocalizations to urethane anesthetised animals while recording from each of the eight areas of the auditory cortex. We demonstrate that the primary area (AI) and three adjacent auditory belt areas contain many units that give isomorphic responses to vocalizations. These are the ventrorostral belt (VRB), the transitional belt area (T) that is ventral to AI and the small area (area S) that is rostral to AI. Area VRB has a denser representation of cells that are better at discriminating among calls by using either a rate code or a temporal code than any other area. Furthermore, 10% of VRB cells responded to communication calls but did not respond to stimuli such as clicks, broadband noise or pure tones. Area S has a sparse distribution of call responsive cells that showed excellent temporal locking, 31% of which selectively responded to a single call. AI responded well to all vocalizations and was much more responsive to vocalizations than the adjacent dorsocaudal core area. Areas VRB, AI and S contained units with the highest levels of mutual information about call stimuli. Area T also responded well to some calls but seems to be specialized for low sound levels. The two dorsal belt areas are comparatively unresponsive to vocalizations and contain little information about the calls. AI projects to areas S, VRB and T, so there may be both rostral and ventral pathways for processing vocalizations in the guinea pig.

Accurate temporal coding of low-frequency tones by spikes that are locked to a particular phase of the sine wave (phase-locking), occurs among certain groups of neurons at various processing levels in the brain. Phase-locked responses have previously been studied in the inferior colliculus and neocortex of the guinea pig and we now describe the responses in the auditory thalamus. Recordings were made from 241 single units, 32 (13%) of which showed phase-locked responses. Units with phase-locked responses were mainly (82%) located in the ventral division of the medial geniculate body (MGB), and also the medial division (18%), but were not found in the dorsal or shell divisions. The upper limiting frequency of phase-locking varied greatly between units (60–1,100 Hz) and between anatomical divisions. The upper limit in the ventral division was 520 Hz and in the medial was 1,100 Hz. The range of steady-state delays calculated from phase plots also varied: ventral division, 8.6–14 ms (me...

This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of beat deaf students in dance, focusing on how rhythm difficulties influence learning, participation, and self-perception. Beat deafness refers to the inability to perceive or synchronize with musical rhythm despite normal hearing, a condition affecting a small portion of the population yet significantly shaping experiences in rhythmbased physical education. Conducted in two universities in Tacloban City, Leyte, the study involved twelve participants, including eight college students identified as struggling with rhythm and four teachers handling dance classes. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews and analysed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis framework. Findings revealed that students experienced persistent struggles with rhythm and synchronization, often failing to stay on beat despite effort and practice. These challenges were linked not only to perceptual and motor coordination issues but also to emotional and social consequences such as embarrassment, reduced self-confidence, and withdrawal from participation. Teachers likewise reported difficulties in supporting rhythmchallenged learners using traditional teaching strategies. Despite these barriers, students demonstrated resilience by employing coping strategies including peer assistance, repeated practice, and self-regulation. The study highlights that beat deafness extends beyond technical limitations and reflects deeper human experiences shaped by identity, emotion, and social interaction. The research underscores the need for inclusive, theory-based, and differentiated teaching strategies that integrate technical instruction with emotional support. By understanding the lived realities of beat deaf learners, educators can design responsive interventions that promote confidence, participation, and equitable learning opportunities in dance education.

Headache and other neuropsychological symptoms occur in users of cellular telephones, and 9 controversy exists concerning risks for brain cancer. We hypothesize these effects result from the head serving as 10 an antenna and brain tissue as a radio receiver. The frequencies for transmission and reception by cellular 11 telephones, about 900 MHz for analog and 1800 MHz for digital transmission, have wavelengths of 33-35 and 16-12 17 cm, respectively. Human heads are oval in shape with a short axis about 16 to 17 cm in length. Near the ear 13 there will be a cross-section in the head with an axis half the wavelength of RF/MW transmissions of 900 MHz and 14 equal to the wavelength of RF/MW transmissions at 1800 MHz. 15 Therefore, the human head can serve as a lossy resonator for the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the 16 cellular telephone, absorbing much of the energy specifically from these wavelengths. Brain cells and tissues 17 demodulate the cell-phone's audio frequencies from the radio frequency carrier. Low audio frequencies in the 18 ranges of a and b waves affect these waves and thereby influence brain function. These effects state the case for 19 a precautionary policy. ª 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. 20 21 HYPOTHESIS 22 There have been case reports of headache, nausea, diz-23 ziness, sleep disturbance, short-term memory problems, 24 and fatigue in users of cellular telephones (1,2). Labo-25 ratory studies have reported alterations in permeability 26 of the blood brain barrier, brain electrical activity, 27 membrane permeability, and DNA breaks (3). Three 28 epidemiologic studies have not found excess prior use of 29 cell phones in persons with brain cancer (4-6), but their non-ionizing radiation at appropriate frequencies can 47 trigger non-trivial effects in brain function (9). We pos-48 tulate that the size and shape of the head acts as an 1 Medical Hypotheses (2002) xx(x), 1-3

Recent neuropsychological evidence suggests that acquired brain lesions can, in some instances, abolish the ability to integrate inputs from different sensory modalities, disrupting multisensory perception. We explored the ability to perceive multisensory events, in particular the integrity of audio-visual processing in the temporal domain, in brain-damaged patients with visual field defects (VFD), or with unilateral spatial neglect (USN), by assessing their sensitivity to the 'Sound-Induced Flash Illusion' (SIFI). The study yielded two key findings. Firstly, the 'fission' illusion (namely, seeing multiple flashes when a single flash is paired with multiple sounds) is reduced in both left- and right-brain-damaged patients with VFD, but not in right-brain-damaged patients with left USN. The disruption of the fission illusion is proportional to the extent of the occipital damage. Secondly, a reliable 'fusion' illusion (namely, seeing less flashes when a single ...

In order to determine what aspects of information from prose are available for recall after one presentation of a passage and what aspects are learned with additional presentations, two passages were divided into idea units. These units were placed in a logical hierarchical structure for each passage, and scores were assigned to the idea units on the basis of their position in the structure. Sixty-nine undergraduates were divided into three groups equally; each group heard the passages once, twice, or three times before recalling-Effects of the logical structure were seen in the kinds of idea units remembered, the stability of these units in consecutive recalls, and the tendency for clustering of idea units on this basis. In addition, serial position, importance of idea units, and order of recall were examined with the recall data. It was found that units high in the logical hierarchy were recalled more frequently than those lower in the hierarchy, that subjects tended to recall groups of units from the passages which were related to one another in the hierarchical structure, and that the stability of each unit recall was substantially related to its position in the logical structure of the passage. Figures and a bibliography are included.

Background: Developmental stuttering is associated with disruptions in temporal coordination, auditorymotor integration, and sensorimotor timing during speech production. Although auditory feedback has long been recognized as a central factor in speech fluency regulation, most traditional interventions have focused primarily on temporal manipulation of auditory input through delayed auditory feedback (DAF). The spatial organization of the auditory field during speech production remains comparatively underexplored as a therapeutic variable. Objective: The present study introduces the Virtual Acoustic Field (VAF) framework-defined as the systematic shaping of the auditory environment through spatial, temporal, and intensity-related parameters of sound-and investigates its application in a case of developmental stuttering. Methods: A 10-year-old boy with a four-year history of developmental stuttering received 16 sessions of real-time stereophonic 3D sound processing over eight weeks using a Behringer X Air XR12 digital mixer and Mixing Station software. Acoustic processing included stereo width modulation, micro-delays within the Haas-effect range (10-18 ms), subtle interaural time difference (ITD) and interaural level difference (ILD) adjustments, and controlled spatial cues. Overall system latency was approximately 0.8 ms. Speech samples were evaluated by two independent speechlanguage therapists (inter-rater reliability ICC = 0.89-0.92). Results: Following the intervention, disfluencies decreased by approximately 59% (from 14.2% to 5.8% during reading; from 16.1% to 8.5% during spontaneous speech). Block duration decreased by more than 60% (from 1.46-1.62 s to 0.52-0.71 s). Estimated pre-post effect size (Cohen's d) was approximately 1.8. Qualitative improvements included smoother speech initiation, reduced visible struggle behavior, and improved conversational continuity. Conclusions: Real-time spatial acoustic conditioning within a VAF framework may influence the perceptual organization of auditory feedback during speech and support temporal coordination in developmental stuttering, without requiring conscious behavioral compensation strategies. The findings are interpreted within current models of auditory-motor integration, predictive coding, and auditory scene analysis. Further controlled studies with larger samples, neurophysiological measurements, and long-term follow-up are warranted.

The perception and training of musical intervals form a central foundation for pitch cognition and musical understanding within solfege education. This scoping review maps the existing literature on interval training, emphasizing the interplay between perceptual mechanisms, pedagogical modeling, and instructional design. Following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, systematic searches were conducted across three academic platforms-ERIC, Google Scholar, and JSTOR-using combinations of the keywords "interval training," "solfege," "pitch perception," and "music education." Thirty-five peer-reviewed studies published between 2010 and 2025 were analyzed, while historical and theoretical sources (1889-2009) were also considered to contextualize the pedagogical and cognitive development of interval training. Thematic synthesis identified three overarching domains: (1) perceptual-cognitive mechanisms underlying interval recognition, tonal awareness, and auditory feedback; (2) pedagogical models integrating auditory, visual, and kinesthetic modalities in solfege instruction; and (3) instructional frameworks promoting pitch stability, long-term learning, and vocal-motor integration. Collectively, the reviewed evidence suggests that structured interval training enhances pitch discrimination, strengthens the mapping between perception and vocal production, and provides a sustainable foundation for music learning. By linking perceptual cognition with pedagogical practice, this study contributes to a broader understanding of how intervalbased training supports both the psychological and educational dimensions of musical development.

Previous research demonstrates that modality-specific selective attention attenuates multisensory integration in healthy young adults. Additionally, older adults evidence enhanced multisensory integration compared to younger adults. We hypothesized that these increases were due to changes in top-down suppression, and therefore older adults would demonstrate multisensory integration while selectively attending. Performance of older and younger adults was compared on a cued discrimination task. Older adults had greater multisensory integration than younger adults in all conditions, yet were still able to reduce integration using selective attention. This suggests that attentional processes are intact in older adults, but are unable to compensate for an overall increase in the amount of sensory processing during divided attention.

RESUMO Objetivo: caracterizar os hábitos e queixas auditivas de adolescentes normoouvintes, usuários de estéreos pessoais e relacioná-los com a atividade do sistema olivococlear medial. Métodos: foram avaliados 21 indivíduos, com idades entre 12 e 19 anos, com audição normal. Todos responderam a um questionário fechado referente ao comportamento auditivo e a queixa de zumbido e realizaram avaliação audiológica: Audiometria, Imitanciometria, Emissões Otoacústicas Evocadas Transientes e Efeito de Supressão. Resultados: todos os participantes do estudo ficam expostos à música, a maioria, menos de duas horas diárias. Observou-se a presença do efeito de supressão na orelha direita em 66,67% e na esquerda em 61,90% dos adolescentes. Não foi encontrada associação significante entre a presença do efeito de supressão entre as orelhas, os gêneros e entre tempos de exposição sonora diária e ausência do efeito de supressão. Parte da amostra dos adolescentes referiu ter zumbido, destes, a maiori...

Empathetic behaviour is regarded as a positive trait amongst healthcare professionals and has been attributed to increased patient compliance, greater patient satisfaction, and greater diagnostic accuracy and reduced rates of clinical errors. In particular, paramedic students have typically displayed lower rates of empathy when compared to their healthcare counterparts. The objective of this study is to assess both the level of empathy and changes in empathy in undergraduate paramedic students over a 3-year period at a single tertiary institution. A cross sectional study employing a convenience sample of first, second and third year undergraduate paramedic students at Monash University. Student empathy scores where measured with the Jefferson Scale of EmpathyeHealth Profession Student version (JSEeHPS); a validated, self-reporting questionnaire. 552 students were enrolled in the study. The mean overall JSEeHPS score for the cohort was 108.60 (SD ¼ 12.50). Female students displayed significantly higher empathy scores of 110.27 (SD ¼ 11.62) compared to males at 105.36 (SD ¼ 13.57). There was also a significant difference (p ¼ 0.03) noted between the 2008 JSEeHPS score 106.32 (SD ¼ 14.02), when compared to the 2009 cohort, 110.18 (SD ¼ 12.91). Results from this study suggest that paramedic students display lower empathy than those reported by fellow healthcare students within the literature.

An overview of the computational prediction of emotional responses to music is presented. Communication of emotions by music has received a great deal of attention during the last years and a large number of empirical studies have described the role of individual features (tempo, mode, articulation, timbre) in predicting the emotions suggested or invoked by the music. However, unlike the present work, relatively few studies have attempted to model continua of expressed emotions using a variety of musical features from audio-based representations in a correlation design. The construction of the computational model is divided into four separate phases, with a different focus for evaluation. These phases include the theoretical selection of relevant features, empirical assessment of feature validity, actual feature selection, and overall evaluation of the model. Existing research on music and emotions and extraction of musical features is reviewed in terms of these criteria. Examples drawn from recent studies of emotions within the context of film soundtracks are used to demonstrate each phase in the construction of the model. These models are able to explain the dominant part of the listeners' self-reports of the emotions expressed by music and the models show potential to generalize over different genres within Western music. Possible applications of the computational models of emotions are discussed.

A common approach to studying emotional reactions to music is to attempt to obtain direct links between musical surface features such as tempo and a listener’s responses. however, such an analysis ultimately fails to explain why emotions are aroused in the listener. in this article we explore an alternative approach, which aims to account for musical emotions in terms of a set of psychological mechanisms that are activated by different types of information in a musical event. this approach was tested in 4 experiments that manipulated 4 mechanisms (brain stem reflex, contagion, episodic memory, musical expectancy) by selecting existing musical pieces that featured information relevant for each mechanism. the excerpts were played to 60 listeners, who were asked to rate their felt emotions on 15 scales. skin conductance levels and facial expressions were measured, and listeners reported subjective impressions of relevance to specific mechanisms. results indicated that the target mechan...

An overview of the computational prediction of emotional responses to music is presented. Communication of emotions by music has received a great deal of attention during the last years and a large number of empirical studies have described the role of individual features (tempo, mode, articulation, timbre) in predicting the emotions suggested or invoked by the music. However, unlike the present work, relatively few studies have attempted to model continua of expressed emotions using a variety of musical features from audio-based representations in a correlation design. The construction of the computational model is divided into four separate phases, with a different focus for evaluation. These phases include the theoretical selection of relevant features, empirical assessment of feature validity, actual feature selection, and overall evaluation of the model. Existing research on music and emotions and extraction of musical features is reviewed in terms of these criteria. Examples drawn from recent studies of emotions within the context of film soundtracks are used to demonstrate each phase in the construction of the model. These models are able to explain the dominant part of the listeners' self-reports of the emotions expressed by music and the models show potential to generalize over different genres within Western music. Possible applications of the computational models of emotions are discussed.

The predictive processing paradigm has redefined perception as a hierarchical inferential process grounded in the generation and continuous updating of priors-probability distributions over states of the world accumulated through experience. In the musical domain, this framework has allowed musical expectations to be traced back to mechanisms of statistical learning, probabilistic encoding, and prediction error. A decisive problem nevertheless remains undertheorized: the transition from individual inference to the cultural convergence of expectations. This work argues that such a transition requires an explanatory principle distinct from individual statistical learning and from the generic notion of enculturation: distributed prior stabilization, the process whereby probability distributions over sonic events converge across different individuals and consolidate historically through the interaction of shared neurocognitive constraints, convergent exposure, and cultural transmission. The contribution proposes a three-level model-neural, cognitive, cultural-connected by feedback mechanisms analogous to biological niche inheritance, and tests its robustness against the empirically grounded case of the authentic cadence in Western tonality. Music thus emerges as a privileged laboratory for investigating the passage from individual inferential processes to shared cultural structures.

People suffering from age-related hearing loss typically present with deficits in temporal processing tasks. Temporal processing deficits have also been shown in single-unit studies at the level of the auditory brainstem, midbrain, and cortex of aged animals. In this study, we explored whether temporal coding is already affected at the level of the input to the central auditory system. Single-unit auditory nerve fiber recordings were obtained from 41 Mongolian gerbils of either sex, divided between young, middle-aged, and old gerbils. Temporal coding quality was evaluated as vector strength in response to tones at best frequency, and by constructing shuffled and cross-stimulus autocorrelograms, and reverse correlations, from responses to 1 s noise bursts at 10 -30 dB sensation level (dB above threshold). At comparable sensation levels, all measures showed that temporal coding was not altered in auditory nerve fibers of aging gerbils. Furthermore, both temporal fine structure and envelope coding remained unaffected. However, spontaneous rates were decreased in aging gerbils. Importantly, despite elevated pure tone thresholds, the frequency tuning of auditory nerve fibers was not affected. These results suggest that age-related temporal coding deficits arise more centrally, possibly due to a loss of auditory nerve fibers (or their peripheral synapses) but not due to qualitative changes in the responses of remaining auditory nerve fibers. The reduced spontaneous rate and elevated thresholds, but normal frequency tuning, of aged auditory nerve fibers can be explained by the well known reduction of endocochlear potential due to strial dysfunction in aged gerbils.

This contribution aims at providing some initial indications
on silence as a sense effect by considering as a starting point the
auditory perception. To begin with, I will refer to a dictionary
definition of “silence”:
1. a complete absence of noise or sound;
2. a situation in which no one speaks;
3. a situation in which someone refuses to talk about so-
mething or to answer questions;
4. a situation in which people do not communicate with each
other by letter or telephone1.
As it can be seen, silence has an initial audible determination
(1), which then metaphorically extends, through the acoustic
component of language (2), to verbal communication (3), and
finally to communication tout court (4).
If the semantic core of the term “silence” concerns audito-
ry perception, then it is worth checking what the thresholds,
limits, and boundary conditions of the latter are, in an at-
tempt to define the perceptual scope on which the possibi-
lity of sense from the audible domain, and consequently of
silence, lies. From here, it is possible to verify the semantic
expandability of silence, i.e. its “metaphorical” use. To this
end, I will introduce some very general aspects of auditory
perception.

Although tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is efficacious in most patients, the exact mechanism is unclear and no predictor of improvement is available. We correlated the extent of improvement with pre-TRT quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) findings to identify neural predictors of improvement after TRT. Thirty-two patients with debilitating tinnitus were prospectively enrolled, and qEEG data were recorded before their initial TRT sessions. Three months later, these qEEG findings were correlated with the percentage improvements in the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) scores, and numeric rating scale (NRS) scores of tinnitus loudness and tinnitus perception. The THI score improvement was positively correlated with the pre-treatment activities of the left insula and the left rostral and pregenual anterior cingulate cortices (rACC/pgACC), which control parasympathetic activity. Additionally, the activities of the right auditory cortices and the parahippocampus, areas that gene...

Perceptual voice judgment is a standard procedure in voice quality evaluation. However, the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the judges often affect its reliability. Use of anchors has been shown to improve the reliability of the procedure. Therefore, this study aimed to develop female synthesized anchors in Cantonese, English, and Putonghua and investigate the reliability of perceptual voice rating across speakers of three native languages using an anchormatching method. Ten native Cantonese speakers, 10 native English speakers and 10 native Putonghua speakers were recruited to rate the severity of breathiness and roughness of pathological voice samples in Cantonese, English and Putonghua. Results showed high intrarater agreement (average 87.23%) and inter-rater reliability (average 0.94) across listener groups and stimuli sets. The Putonghua listeners in this study demonstrated significantly lower intrarater agreement than the Cantonese listeners, suggesting possible cultural and linguistic differences in perceptual voice evaluation between Putonghua and Cantonese listeners.

It is still a matter of debate whether cephalopods can detect sound frequencies above 400 Hz. So far there is no proof for the detection of underwater sound above 400 Hz via a physiological approach. The controversy of whether cephalopods have a sound detection ability above 400 Hz was tested using the auditory brainstem response (ABR) approach, which has been successfully applied in fish, crustaceans, amphibians, reptiles and birds. Using ABR we found that auditory evoked potentials can be obtained in the frequency range 400 to 1500 Hz (Sepiotheutis lessoniana) and 400 to 1000 Hz (Octopus vulgaris), respectively. The thresholds of S. lessoniana were generally lower than those of O. vulgaris.

Noise is an important theoretical constraint on the evolution of signal form and sensory performance. In order to determine environmental constraints on the communication of two freshwater gobies Padogobius martensii and Gobius nigricans, numerous noise spectra were measured from quiet areas and ones adjacent to waterfalls and rapids in two shallow stony streams. Propagation of goby sounds and waterfall noise was also measured. A quiet window around 100 Hz is present in many noise spectra from noisy locations. The window lies between two noise sources, a low-frequency one attributed to turbulence, and a high-frequency one (200–500 Hz) attributed to bubble noise from water breaking the surface. Ambient noise from a waterfall (frequencies below 1 kHz) attenuates as much as 30 dB between 1 and 2 m, after which values are variable without further attenuation (i.e., buried in the noise floor). Similarly, courtship sounds of P. martensii attenuate as much as 30 dB between 5 and 50 cm. Sin...

This paper explores the overlooked formal overlap between the hermeneutic teleology and spectral envelope transient morphing in György Ligeti's Symphony No. 117. By applying a rigorous framework derived from Albert Bregman's latest formulations, we demonstrate how microtonal beating interference field coordinates a complex hierarchy of teleologys. Our analysis reveals that the liminal methodological framework is not a mere surface phenomenon, but rather a deep-structure construct that foregrounds the global structural integrity of the work. Finally, we discuss the broader pedagogical and analytical implications of this model for SPECTRAL research, suggesting a radical paradigmatic shift in how we conceptualize music theory.

Variation in attachment is associated with differences in arousal to infant crying. • In secure adoptees experiential arousal and physiological arousal to infant crying are integrated. • In insecure adoptees experiential arousal and physiological arousal to infant crying are dissociated. • Insecure adoptees use a deactivating style in response to infant crying.

The same decrease in intensity and retinal size in near space did not enhance audiovisual integration, indicating that these results cannot be explained by changes in stimulus efficacy or an increase in distance alone, but rather by an interaction between these factors. The results are discussed in the context of multisensory experience and spatial uncertainty, and underline the importance of studying multisensory integration in the depth space.

There is a growing body of work in infant speech perception proposing that the auditory analysis of speech is coupled with articulatory information involved in speech production. These studies show that the link between perception and production emerges early in infancy, and before infants have some experience with speech production. However, the mechanisms behind the development of this link are not well understood. Importantly, research has not yet addressed whether infants produce speech-driven articulatory movements when perceiving speech. To address this question, we employed ultrasound imaging to record the tongue shapes of 6-month-old infants while listening to vowelconsonant-vowel sequences that differed in the articulatory configuration of the consonant. If tongue shape varied as a function of the speech token heard, listening to a dental sound like /t/, and to a velar sound like /k/, would trigger differences in tongue shape. The results confirmed this prediction, showing that infants produced articulatory movements by placing the tongue more to the front or back in the direction of the sounds they heard. Our findings are the first to suggest that infants engage in speech driven oral-motor responses modulated by the sounds perceived, advancing our understanding of the mechanisms for the emerging perception-production link.

Against a hierarchical model, previous studies by Mal-Spain peli (1983) showed that the pharmacological blockade 3 Department of Psychology of a main layer (layer A) in lateral geniculate nucleus University of Connecticut (LGN) inactivated layer 4 simple cells but not layer 2ϩ3 Storrs, Connecticut 06269 complex cells. The activity of layer 2ϩ3 cells was thought to be maintained by inputs that originate in other thalamic structures either through a direct projection Summary to area 17 or indirectly through feed back connections (Malpeli, 1983; Malpeli et al., 1986; Mignard and Malpeli, In primary visual cortex, neurons are classified into 1991). Malpeli's results, and the discovery that some simple cells and complex cells based on their response complex cells receive direct geniculate input (Hoffmann properties. Although the role of these two cell types and Stone, 1971; Singer et al., 1975; Bullier and Henry, in vision is still unknown, an attractive hypothesis is 1979; Ferster and Lindstrom, 1983; Tanaka, 1983; Martin that simple cells are necessary to construct complex and Whitteridge, 1984), motivated compelling alternareceptive fields. This hierarchical model puts forward tives to the hierarchical model. two main predictions. First, simple cells should con-"Parallel models" proposed that simple cells and comnect monosynaptically to complex cells. Second, complex cells were both constructed from direct geniculate plex cells should become silent when simple cells are inputs. Based on the fact that simple cells, but not cominactivated. We have recently provided evidence for plex cells, show linear spatial summation (Skottun et al., the first prediction, and here we do the same for the 1991), parallel models suggested that simple cells were second. In summary, our results suggest that the recreated from the convergence of linear X geniculate ceptive fields of most layer 2ϩ3 complex cells are inputs and complex cells from the convergence of nongenerated by a mechanism that requires simple cell linear Y geniculate inputs (Hoffmann and Stone, 1971; inputs.

People with brain injuries involving the amygdala are often poor at recognizing facial expressions of fear, but the extent to which this impairment compromises other signals of the emotion of fear has not been clearly established. We investigated N.M., a person with bilateral amygdala damage and a left thalamic lesion, who was impaired at recognizing fear from facial expressions. N.M. showed an equivalent de¢cit a¡ecting fear recognition from body postures and emotional sounds. His de¢cit of fear recognition was not linked to evidence of any problem in recognizing anger (a common feature in other reports), but for his everyday experience of emotion N.M. reported reduced anger and fear compared with neurologically normal controls. These ¢ndings show a speci¢c de¢cit compromising the recognition of the emotion of fear from a wide range of social signals, and suggest a possible relationship of this type of impairment with alterations of emotional experience.